Daoist Alchemy

Over the preceding decade, the story of Xie Ziran's " ascent " has drawn much scholarly attention. Scholars have, for the most part, employed historical methods to study the tale, intending to elucidate the origins, psychologies, and socio-cultural backgrounds of Xie Ziran and her fellow practitioners. Basing myself on a thorough recognition of the fictionality of the Xie Ziran story, I attempt here a literary analysis that I hope will show the main features of the image of Daoist priestesses created in this myth.

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Aquarius - The New Light Vesture,
Aquarius - The World Brotherhood of the Rosycross,
Aquarius - Mighty Signs of God's Counsel,
Aquarius - The Liberating Path of the Rosycross,
Aquarius - The New Caduceus,
Called by the World Heart,
Dei Gloria Intacta, The Christian Initiation Mystery,
Elementary Philosophy of the Modern Rosycross,
Gnosis Rays of Light Past and Present,
Gnostic-Christian initiation with the Cathars,
Letters,
Mysteries and Symbols of the Soul,
Mysteries of Birth, Life and Death,
Rosicrucians through the Ages,
Seven Voices Speak,
Spiritual Christmas,
Spiritual Easter and Pentecost, PDF
The Alchemical Wedding of Christian Rosycross
The Alchemical Wedding of Christian Rosycross
The Alchemy of J.K. Rowling
The Brotherhood of Shamballa,
The Chinese Gnosis,
The Coming New Man,
The Confession of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood,
The Egyptian Arch Gnosis
The Gnosis in Present Day Manifestation,
The Gnostic Mysteries of the Pistis Sophia,
The Grail and the Rosycross,
The Great Revolution,
The Golden Rosycross,
The Light Vesture of the New Man,
The Living Word, PDF
The Lost Brother, PDF
The Mystery of the Beatitudes,
The Seal of Renewal,
The Universal Path,
The Universal Remedy,
Transfiguration,
What is Transfiguration?
Work in Service of Humanity
Unmasking

CONTENTS (OUT OF ORDER BELOW WILL UPDATE SOON)

ESOTERIC ANALYSIS OF THE CHYMISCHE HOCHZEIT, PART I Introduction . .. ... . . . . ... . .. . . . . ..3 FIRST DAY The evening OF Easter
The letter of invitation .......................................... ..
C.R.C. realises his own unworthiness .................. ..
C.R.C. 's dream ..................................................... ..
The redeeming cord .............................................. ..
C.R.C. 's preparation for the journey ..................... .
13 19 27 33 43 49 SECOND DAY 7 The four roads . . . . .. . .. . .. .. . . .. .. .. .. . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .
61 8 The encounter with the dove and the raven ....... .....
67 9 Stay away fr om here, you who are unworthy! . ......
77 I 0 The six lanterns . . .. . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 I I The temple of judgement (I) .............. .... ............. ... . 109 12 The temple of judgement (II) ................ .... ......... .... 118 13 The stream of the perfect number .......... ... ........ .. ... . 123 THIRD DAY 14 The balance and the judgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 131 15 The seven weights (I) .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . .. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 141 16 The seven weights (II) . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . 146 17 The four roses ..... ... ... ............................. ............ ..... 153 18 The six sentences ................ ..... ....... ... .......... ....... ... . 159 19 The meals of judgement .. .................. .... ............ ..... 167 20 The place of judgement ...... ..... ..... ..... ... . ...... ... . .. ..... 177 21 The sentences are carried out (I) ............................
187 22 The sentences are carried out (II) ...... .... ........... .. .... 195 23 The unicorn, the lion and the dove . .. . .... ...... ..... .. . ...
203 24 The phoenix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . .. . 21 0 25 Tbe eagle, the griffin and the falcon....................... 215 26 The astral criterion ................................................. 221 27 The royal library and the burial chamber .. ....... .. . ... 229 28 The clock and the globeThe need fo r astral PURIFATION  The inversely proportional polarisation The ten new powers of fulfilment

Luk, Tsing Tsing Crystal. The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong), ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2017. 10798713.

This thesis aims to conduct a comprehensive study on the theoretical and historical connection between Neidan and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) based on a detailed study of the Nedian scripture Yi-dao Huan-yuan [special characters omitted], compiled in the Qing Dynasty.

First of all, based on a variety of editions found in different libraries in China, one can see that the publication of the scripture was connected to the Luˇ zuˇ [special characters omitted] spirit-writing movement during the Qing period. Signs of the movement can be found in the main text, prefaces, and the religion background of its editors and fundraisers. In additions to its formation, the Luˇ zuˇ spirit-writing cults and their disciplesf religious believes also played an important role in the circulation and re-publication of the scriptures in the 19th century.

Secondly, based on previous Neidan studies, one could not bypass the fact that most Neidan scholars usually omit the connection between Neidan and TCM. Especially in regard to the definition of Xing-mìng [special characters omitted] in Neidan texts, the application of TCM theories in this concept was usually dismissed. The discourse of Zhēn yào [special characters omitted] in Neidan, based on theories of Chinese Materia Medica, Medicine Formulae and Etiology developed in Song and the theoretical evolution in the Meridian System during Song and Yuan period played an important role in neidan texts. In addition to the above, the Diagnostic Approaches by applying a theory called Xīn cáng shén wèi jūnzhuˇ zhī guān lùn [special characters omitted] , a theory that emphasis the Heart [special characters omitted] as a residence where Shén [special characters omitted], the Monarchy [special characters omitted] resides, played a major role in the discourse of practice of Xing-ming in Neidan texts. Just as Neidan texts emphasized, Xìng and Mìng are interconnect and inter-related. This discourse was the main concept of the Xīn cáng shén wèi junzhuˇ zhī guān lùn, according to which onefs body is related to onefs mind so that mind and body should be diagnosed and healed as one. Through an in-depth study of the application of TCM theories in Yi-dao Huanyuan and its Neidan practice, and carefully explained the history of each medical concepts, one can understand that the principle of Xìng-mìng in Neidan was built upon the Chinese medical context.

Based on the theories mentioned above, Yi-dao Huan-yuan demonstrates that the interconnection and inter-relations of Xìng-mìng was built upon the influence of the heart to Ming mén [special characters omitted], or vice versa. Mìng mén is one of the concepts applied in TCM. Under the Xin cáng shén wèi jūnzhuˇ zhī guān lùn and related concepts, the phrase Xìng-mìng in Neidan does not only carry common meanings, but medical understanding based on the medical identity and medical knowledge of their authors and editors. From this study, one could see how the medical development in Song and Yuan period impacted the terms and phrases used in Neidan texts and the theories applied in such texts.

Finally, after going through the medical details of the Neidan practice presented in Yi-dao Huan-yuan, it is hard to omit that most medical theories and concepts applied in Neidan practice were found or influenced by Daoists who also happen to be some of the most famous practitioners in Chinese Medical history.

In conclusion, we will review the fact that the theories and concepts these Daoists built became the core of TCM practice. They not only shaped the development of TCM, but also originated the meaning of terms applied in Neidan regarding to organs, meridians, Yào [special characters omitted] and Xìng-mìng etc. Their contributions have long been understood as religious healing instead of professional medicine in Daoist Studies. This point of view has underestimated the influence of Daoism in TCM development, and the interaction of the two. Vice versa, this has also limited the understanding, in Neidan studies, regarding to the applications of medical terms, concepts and theories.

Estudio del contenido y la estructura del texto "padre de todos los libros de alquimia de China". No existe traducción al castellano de este tratado imprescindible para comprender los fundamentos de la alquimia china. Este estudio se coloca bajo licencia Creative Commons. Si vas a usarlo de algún modo, por favor, cita la fuente. © Jordi Vilà i Oliveras (2007)

Awakening to Reality (Wuzhen pian) is one of the most important and best-known Taoist alchemical texts. Written in the eleventh century, it describes in a poetical form, and in a typically cryptic and allusive language, several facets of Neidan, or internal alchemy. This book presents the first part of the text, consisting of sixteen poems, which contain a concise but comprehensive exposition of Neidan. In addition to notes that intend to clarify the meaning of the more obscure points, the book also contains selections from a commentary dating from the late eighteenth century, which is distinguished by the use of a lucid and plain language.

This anthology presents complete or partial translations of sixteen important works belonging to the Taoist tradition of Neidan, or Internal Alchemy. While the selections are far from covering the whole field of Neidan—a virtually impossible task, given its width and variety—they are representative of its main lineages and branches. Texts have been selected in this perspective and are arranged chronologically, in order to provide an overview not only of Neidan, but also of the history of its discourses and practices. Four of the sixteen texts are integrally translated. Six texts and two commentaries are translated here (entirely or partially) for the first time into English. The book is concluded by several tables and by an index of the main terms.

Based on his dreams and visions, Wolfgang Pauli, the co-founder of quantum physics and Nobel Prize laureate in 1945, believed that, symbolically speaking, he carried both Johannes Kepler, the founder of modern natural science, and Robert Fludd, the hermetic alchemist and magician, within himself. Moreover, he was convinced that it was his task to resolve the conflict between these two contradictory world views, natural science on the one hand, and the magical hermetic-alchemical one on the other

В трактате «Истинный канон желтого двора» объясняются основы устройства микрокосмоса человеческого тела и излагается сущность практики постижения Дао и достижения бессмертия. «Истинный канон» высоко ценится даосами и практикующими мастерами боевых искусств внутренних стилей. В настоящем издании канон сопровождается устными комментариями Суй Юньцзяна, современного мастера багуачжан и мэйхуачжуан, наговоренными в Москве летом 2010 года.

Introduction to my translation of Heshang Gong's commentary, second edition with translator commentary.

Looking at Heshang Gong's influence on the Daoist tradition, and new considerations for dating both the Heshang Gong commentary, and the Dao De Jing.

Subsections also include: "Dao, De, and Oneness in Heshang Gong’s Commentary;"  "Ethics and Kindness in the Dao De Jing;" and "The Politics of Lao Zi."

This article argues that late-Ming-era landscape paintings can be understood best historically in the context of such cultural practices as Daoist visualization and the discourses that accompanied it. Taking a Snowy Mountains-themed painting, it critiques the Cartesian perspective by demonstrating that landscape paintings were not regarded as closed objects available to the thinking subject for mere aesthetic appreciation. Instead, they were thought to possess an interiority that afforded space for the human spirit to roam in. A certain teleology associated with this practice was the merging of the beholder's human body with that of a purported broader cosmic body, thereby also giving interiority to the physical world-including landscape. Access to this space, or, "entering the mountains," allowed for a momentary yet reproducible experience of transcendence. To make this argument, the article draws upon late-imperial narrative prose, Daoist texts, and other materials from the same period, all describing the cultural significance of this pattern of interiority, accessibility, visualization, and merging of bodies.

Chinese alchemy has a history of more than two thousand years, recorded from the 2nd century BCE to the present day. Its two main branches — Waidan (External Alchemy) and Neidan (Internal Alchemy) — share in part their doctrinal foundations but differ in the respective practices.

This PDF outlines the main stages of development of the Chinese alchemical tradition, and the analogies and differences among doctrines and practices of its main branches and lineages.

CONTENTS
Introduction
1. Origins of Waidan
2. The Taiqing (Great Clarity) Tradition
3. Taoist Meditation and the Origins of Neidan
4. The Cantong qi (Seal of the Unity of the Three)
5. Waidan After the Cantong qi
6. Main Neidan Lineages and Masters
7. Neidan: General Perspectives
8. The Internal Elixir and the View of the Human Being
9. The Practice of the Internal Elixir

MANKIND’S MOST IMPORTANT TECHNOLOGY!! --→
SKIP DIRECTLY TO MIND OVER MATTER. 
BECOME THE GOD THAT YOU ARE!!!

EUPHORIA, TELEPATHIC MOMENTS, HOMAGE BY NATURE, WEATHER CONTROL AND ALCHEMY / MANIFESTATION ARE NORMAL NOW AND WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN.

Now we know from history that the training has been done by rote, the explanations mired in alchemical secrecy, and then if someone does achieve the rare status of qigong master it's only because they've been able to store up their energy sufficiently. In which case for real qigong masters they then need to protect their energy, dole it out carefully, build up a base of students, etc. It's obviously not easy especially considering this shamanic training goes against the grain of the modern world. "Your language-focused mind is an idiot; only spirit has wisdom. No matter how much book knowledge or street smarts you have, it won't help with spiritual affairs. Spiritual wisdom is only voiced by spirit. You may be its instrument, but you don't know jack squat. Get over yourself and allow spirit to take over. Easier said than done. And it's never done." Dr. Bradford Keeney So then the basic principle of enlightenment training is to visualize, with the eyes closed, spirit-light or shen, beneath the life force or jing energy (see the first image above). Spirit or shen turns generative force (jing) into yuan qi. "Since it is the undivided yin-yang it is called the One vitality." p. 122, Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality. As the Tao Te Ching states on alchemy (works link):, "empty the mind and fill the belly" which are reminiscent of later Daoist inner alchemy breathing practices meant to tonify the energy center in the lower abdomen. Chapter 40's passage "the movement of Dao is reversal" Alchemically this means we visualize and focus our fire or spirit qi underneath our water or life force qi, in order to bring out the qi hidden within spirit and life force. Professor William Clarke Hudson II, University of Virginia provides the Neidan alchemy commentaries on the Tao Te Ching:

"Originally written for Chinese readers, this book provides a clear description of the Taoist practice of Internal Alchemy, or Neidan. The author outlines the stages of the alchemical practice and clarifies several relevant terms and notions, including Essence, Breath, and Spirit; the Cinnabar Fields; the "Fire Times"; and the Embryo. The book is based on the system of the Wuzhen pian (Awakening to Reality), one of the main sources of Internal Alchemy, and contains about two hundred quotations from original Taoist texts.

Wang Mu (1908-92) received the Longmen ordination in his youth. He taught Internal Alchemy (Neidan) and was held in high regard by both Taoist practitioners and scholars. He served as a board member of the China Taoist Association and was for some time in charge of its research activities. He is known outside China mainly for his annotated edition of the Wuzhen pian (Awakening to Reality), the text at the basis of the outline of Internal Alchemy that he provides in the present book.

Originally published as "Wuzhen pian danfa yaozhi" 「悟真篇」丹法要旨"

Spirit and Soul of Elixir Alchemy is the introduction to Gold Elixirs - A Cross-cultural History of Therapeutic Gold, currently being written by J. Erik LaPort. The book outlines the origins of Asian Elixir Alchemy, traces the cultural intercourse and development of gold therapeutics worldwide, and discusses surviving examples of Gold Elixirs available today from an historic and cultural perspective. Expected publication date late 2015 or early 2016.

Феномен алхимии в истории науки, философии, культуре. IV международная научная конференция / Отв. ред., состав. и вс. ст. Б. К. Двинянинов, В. Н. Морозов. — СПб.: ИД РХГА, 2022. —188 с.: ил.

The Phenomenon of Alchemy in the History of Science, Philosophy, Culture. The Fourth International Conference / Ed. by B. K. Dvinyaninov, W. N. Morozov. — Saint-Petersburg: Publishing House RHGA, 2022. — 188 p.: ill. ISBN 978-5-907505-31-5

В сборнике представлены материалы состоявшейся 7–10 октября 2021 года четвертой научной конференции, посвященной различным аспектам изучения феномена алхимии. Конференция прошла в память академического исследователя истории и философии алхимии к. ф. н. Ю. Ф. Родиченкова. Представленные статьи охватывают темы, связанные с методологической проблематикой феномена, рецепцией алхимии в западных и восточных культурах, а также проявления образов алхимии в искусстве и литературе.
Это издание может быть интересным для тех, кто преподает и изучает философию, историю науки, культурологию, а также всем тем, кто интересуется историей человеческой мысли, проблемами донаучного и вненаучного знания.

В файле есть полное содержание сборника.

"Under an allusive poetical language and thick layers of images and symbols, The Seal of the Unity of the Three (Cantong qi) hides the exposition of the teachings that gave birth to Taoist Internal Alchemy, or Neidan.
          Traditionally attributed to Wei Boyang and dated to about 150 CE, The Seal of the Unity of the Three is concerned with three major subjects — Taoism (the way of "non-doing"), Cosmology (the system of the Book of Changes), and Alchemy — and joins them to one another into a unique doctrine. The charm of its verses, the depth of its discourse, and its enigmatic language inspired a large number of commentaries and other works, and attracted the attention not only of Taoist masters and adepts, but also of philosophers, cosmologists, and poets.
          In addition to a complete translation, this book contains a detailed introduction to the history and the teachings of The Seal of the Unity of the Three, explanations of each of its sections, and notes on its verses. Also included are several tables and pictures, an index of main subjects, and the complete Chinese text."

This paper gives a brief history of Daoism in the west. First I discuss various forms of Daoism and its transmission to the west in texts. Then I give the various stages of the assimilation of Daoist ideas into western esoteric practices and teaching. Final I give contemporary examples of Chinese teachers of Daoism in America.  Re-edited 2022

Neidan or Internal Alchemy has developed two main modes of selfcultivation. The first is based on cultivating the mind and intends to remove the causes that prevent one from "seeing one's true nature," which is equated with the Elixir. The second is based on purifying the main components of the human being-Essence (jing 精 ), Breath (qi 氣 ), and Spirit (shen 神 )-so that they may serve as ingredients of the Elixir. These two modes of self-cultivation are said to place an emphasis on xing 性 and on ming 命 , respectively. However, Neidan texts repeat time and again that xing and ming can only be understood and realized in conjunction with one another.

General Qi Jiguang was coughing up blood, near death in a field hospital, when he received a visit from the Sage Lin Zhao'en. The Sage performed a martial exorcism with explosions and a talisman tocapture pirate ghosts who blamed General Qi for their deaths. General Qi was completely healed. The Sage then taught General Qi the Golden Elixir, cementing a lifelong bond.
Sage Lin claimed that he learned the Golden Elixir in secret night-visits from the Immortal Zhang Sanfeng. The Immortal was a theatrical character, known for defeating twenty-four palace guards with thirty-two moves while snoring like an earthquake and smelling of booze and vomit-thirty-two moves that General Qi wrote about and later became known as Tai Chi!

The dragon-killer Nezha cut his flesh from his bones and returned it to his parents. He was done. Or so it seemed, until Nezha's secret father Taiyi descended from the sky and gave him a new body made of lotus flowers and the Golden Elixir---making him invincible.
Nezha was China's most important hero­ god-so important  that  caravan  guards and rebels nicknamed Beijing "Nezha City." In 1900 thousands of Boxers possessed by Nezha died fighting foreign guns. Blamed and ridiculed for this failure , martial artists who practiced the dance of Nezha hid their history and gave their art a new name-Baguazhang!

Daoist hagiographic works depict the so-called "immortals" (xianren) as extraordinary human beings endowed with several powers, the most important of which is the ability to reach a life span of indefinite length with their ordinary bodies. When we look at other sources belonging to the traditions that evolved during the history of Daoism, a different picture emerges. These sources show that adepts make use of the physical body in order to generate a new person (shen) that is not subject to death.

Among others, early Daoist works (ca. 2nd-6th centuries) describe two main ways to attain immortality. The first is by going through a "simulated death" followed by the refining of the physical body, which then serves as a support for adepts to continue their practices. The second way consists in generating an inner "embryo" that is unaffected by death, and is the seed of one's rebirth as an immortal.

Internal Alchemy (Neidan), which developed from ca. 700, inherited elements of both practices. The refining of the basic components of one's own person results in the generation, gestation, and delivery of an embryo. In certain traditions, the embryo is seen as one's "dharma-body" (fashen), the unmanifested body of Buddhahood, which is free of birth and death. Despite the differences of perspective, here again the ordinary body is seen a support used to generate the immortal body.

This paper surveys some of the main features of the view of the human body in Daoist Internal Alchemy (Neidan 內丹). The first sections discuss three different terms that refer to the body; the metaphors — cosmological, political, theological, natural, and alchemical — used to describe it; and the use of the body as a support for the system of correspondences that tie the human being to the cosmos. On this background, the development of Internal Alchemy is closely related to earlier Daoist meditation practices on the inner gods. The figure of the Red Child (the innermost deity of the human being), in particular, bears close analogies to the 􏰀"embryo"􏰁 that alchemists generate through their practices􏰃 The final sections are concerned with the two main alchemical charts of the human body and with the use of the Buddhist concept of 􏰀dharma-body (fashen 法身)􏰄􏰁 which some Neidan masters describe as the true immortal body.

The following list attempts to cover most translations of traditional neidan texts into Western languages. Each entry includes the Chinese name of the text in pinyin and literary Chinese, its English translation, and its location in Daoist collections based on the The Taoist Canon : A Historical Companion to the Daozang (2004) edited by Kristofer Schipper and Fransiscus Verellen and the Title Index to Daoist Collections (2002) by Louis Komjathy. These are followed by locations of translations in Western languages, mainly English, based on ”Daoist Texts in Translation” (2003) by Louis Komjathy, Chinese Alchemy - An Annotated Bibliography of Works in Western Languages (2009), ”Translations of Neidan Texts into Western Languages” (2019) and ”Chinese Alchemy [A Critical Bibliography]” (2019) by Fabrizio Pregadio, and my own research. The text is then described shortly in its original version, which may not always correspond to the translated text version. The short descriptions are based on The Taoist Canon : A Historical Companion to the Daozang, The Routledge Encyclopedia of Taoism (2008) edited by Fabrizio Pregadio, as well as corresponding articles, studies and translations. Finally, the sources used are mentioned.

The current study is the transcription of a lecture given to the Contemplative Studies Initiative at Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island) in 2011. The transcript was prepared and edited by Aranyelixír Kiadó (Budapest, Hungary), revised, supplemented and approved by Louis Komjathy in September 2014.

Table of Contents:

Salutation

Introduction
- Approaches to the Study of Contemplative Practice
- A Religious Studies Approach
- Dimensions of Contemplative Practice
- Understanding Daoism (Taoism)

Major Types of Daoist Meditation
- Historical Periods and Sources of Daoist Meditation.
- Apophatic Meditation
- Visualization
- Ingestion
- Inner Observation
- Internal Alchemy

Conclusions

Questions and Answers

"This book contains four essays on Internal Alchemy by Isabelle Robinet, originally published in French and translated here for the first time into English. The essays are concerned with the alchemical principle of "inversion"; the devices used by the alchemists to "give form to the Formless by the word, and thus manifest the authentic and absolute Dao"; the symbolic function of numbers in Taoism and in Internal Alchemy; and the original meanings of the terms "External Elixir" (waidan) and "Internal Elixir" (neidan).

Isabelle Robinet (1932-2000) was one of the most important Western scholars of Taoism. Her work dealt with several major topics: the Laozi and the Zhuangzi with their commentaries; the Shangqing (Highest Clarity) school of Taoism; Neidan (Internal Alchemy); and Taoist thought and cosmology. Her publications in English include Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity (1993) and Taoism: Growth of a Religion (1997)."

The Huming Jing (Scripture on Protecting Destiny-life-force, a.k.a  Shengxuan huming jing –  Scripture on Protecting Destiny-life-force and Ascending the Mysterious) is often mentioned adjacent to the Scripture on Clarity and Stillness (Qingjing Jing), one of the most important and recited Daoist scriptures, while being described as a Daoist version of the Buddhist Heart Sutra.
Included here is a commentary by Li Xiyue, founder of the Hidden Immortals Sect of Quanzhen.

Freedom from disease, physiological signs of well- being, and avoidance
of death appear as consistent themes in many writings from preimperial
and imperial China, but there were no direct analogues to a
conceptual category like the English term “health.” These themes do
not appear under a universally consistent term or bounded theoretical
formulation. Instead they appear as common technical terms or
practical foci across different literary genres. Chinese writers refer to
material forces like breath (qi 氣), the force of life (sheng 生), and inner
nature (xing 性), which are cultivated or nourished (yang 養) in the
body, to lengthen one’s life (ming 命). Engagement with health was as
a quantitative object that could be stored in the body, as a processual
goal rather than a conceptual object. While the term “nourishing life”
(yangsheng 養生) only came to refer to a common, recognizable set of
practices after the first century CE, the practices and goals themselves
were understood to be coherent in sources as early as 400 BCE.
In this chapter I argue that three major periods of writing in preand
early imperial China produced dominant modes of writing on
bodily ideals that have continued until the present day. These writings
include philosophical works, self- cultivation manuals, canonical medical
writings, transcendence writings, and formal Daoist texts.

The Cantong qi is the main text of Taoist Internal Alchemy (Neidan). In addition to Taoist masters and adepts, it has also attracted the attention of philosophers, cosmologists, poets, literati, calligraphers, philologists, and bibliophiles. Thirty-eight commentaries written through the end of the nineteenth century are extant, and dozens of texts found in the Taoist Canon and elsewhere are related to it. The present book is the most complete guide to this vast literature available in any language.
          The book is divided into two main parts. Part 1 contains a catalogue of extant and lost commentaries, essays, and related texts, listing altogether about 150 works with systematic details on their authors, editions, and reprints. Part 2 contains a survey of the textual tradition of the Cantong qi, focused on the composition and contents of about 40 major texts. A final index of authors, editors, titles, and editions facilitates the use of the book.""

Yuanshi Tianzun -元始天尊- "Celestial Venerable of the Primordial Beginning", the highest personality in the LingBao Daoism, is the legendary source of the 5th century LingBao scripture "Du Ren Jing" 度人經 , short for the "Yuán Shǐ Wú Liàng Dù Ren Shàng Pǐn Miào Jīng"元始無量度人上品妙經, the "Primal Beginning Boundless Salvation Highest Level Mystical Scripture", book 5 of the Daoist canon, the first LingBao scripture in the canon.

There are 61 scrolls that comprise the scripture, each following a similar pattern, each with a different focus.

Scrolls 21 to 26 are translated by Norman Goundry on the website http://www.dztranslation.org/

This is a translation of Scroll 53; it's a story of the five elements, the five colors, the five directions, the five Qi, and the five emperors, translated by charlie5; it's a story of the universe, by the universe, for the universe.

This work studies the concepts of the body in East and South Asian bodily religious practices and the role of human body in religion. This study focusses on the Chinese and Indian bodily practices, more specifically on Hatha Yoga and Taoist techniques and concepts, in order to find out which concepts of the body form the basis of those practices and what is their inner logic, i.e. how the body is perceived and what the bodily goals of the practitioners are.

The results of the study show that the transformation of the body can be a religious goal. So far, the bodily transformation as an independent religious goal has been widely ignored in the religious studies, and the physical changes that accompany the spiritual transformation have been treated merely as side effects. The current study shows, however, that changing one’s body can also be the main motif for religious practices.

In premodern or religious thinking, the body is not perceived merely as a biological entity, but it also comprises of a number of cultural and social characteristics. The body is seen as being constructed and the construction is an on-going process. This construction process is a prerequisite for ritual self-transformation. A human beings person and body is seen as dependant on social relations and the body is seen as unstable and ever-changing. Thus, the body also involves a social dimension and is also connected with ethics. In a way, ethics and morale can be described as bodily categories.

In this lecture, I show my path to what I call synchronistic living. It was many synchronicities that led me on this path. In other words, they spoke out of themselves and thus showed me that instead of causally, thanks to the will, one can shape one's life based on meaningful coincidences thanks to "preconscious knowledge" (C.G. Jung) and thus grow into one's destiny. The first transformation of consciousness consists is renouncing personal will and thus finding out what destiny wants from one. "Become who you are".

This paper examines the therapeutic use of drugs and ritual as recorded in a 4th-century scripture and the ways different notions of destiny affected treatment. It also offers methodological considerations of the ways contemporary scholarship has separated medicine and religion as discrete fields in early imperial China, and proposes methods for closer engagement with these early materials. A standing theory in the field argues that because rituals of confession and therapeutic drugs were understood to operate on different principles, these two interventions were mutually exclusive. Confessional rituals relied on a moral accounting system and manipulated one’s “count” of allotted life, whereas drugs simply worked empirically, and therefore disrupted the ritual accounting system.

The author investigates this theory by reading the Zhen’gao 真誥 (DZ1016), as an ethnographic source, one of the best of the period. It was also an important source used by proponents of the argument outlined above. Comparison of different revelations indicates that, contrary to the above findings, drugs and ritual were used together over time to treat the same people with the same complaints in what appears to have been a regular protocol. The paper further describes an etiological theory in the text that connects a causal chain that crosses various domains, including ritual and drug therapy. This section of the paper concludes that the hard separation of religion and medicine imagined in earlier scholarship deserves to be reexamined on the basis of actor categories.

How did the protagonists of the Zhen’gao actually organize their knowledge in practice? Looking beyond theoretical models of disease and cure, this organization is visible in the ways social and institutional practice structured the flow and hierarchy of knowledge. Rather than distinguishing between the ritual and the empirical, the protagonists of the text placed much more emphasis on differentiating the esoteric from the exoteric, secret knowledge intended only for initiates versus that circulated to the laity. Very clear distinctions mark these as two different methods of transmission, treatment styles, medical cultures and notions of disease. A concluding methodological reflection argues that attention to the situatedness of knowledge is useful for tracing the emergence of stable systems, whether religious or medical. It argues that this method reveals a two-level notion of destiny as a critical distinguishing feature of Shangqing knowledge.

One of the medical manuscripts recovered from Tomb No. 3 at Mawangdui records the following sentence: “When a person is born there are two things that need not to be learned: the first is to breathe and the second is to eat.” To the minds of cynical readers this is as trivial as it gets. Of course the reflexes to breathe and eat are inherent in human beings. The opposite implication is equally obvious. Once the human brain ceases to function, oxygen and nourishment are no longer required. Why, then, did people insist on burying food and drink with the dead in the late pre-imperial and early imperial China?

To the minds of most modern commentators this seemed like a rather trite question that warranted little reflection. Food and drink as grave goods were either intended to sustain the spirit of the deceased in the hereafter or simply a sacrifice / offering to the spirit at the time of the burial. Yet, a closer look at the archaeological evidence suggests otherwise. By tracking the exact location of food and drink containers in tombs and comprehensively analyzing inscriptions on such vessels and finds of actual food, this article demonstrates that reality was more complicated than a simple either/or dichotomy. Some tombs indicate that the idea of continued sustenance coincided with one-time sacrifices. Moreover, I will introduce evidence of a third kind of offering that, so far, has gone unnoticed by scholarship. Such data confirms that sacrifices to spirits other than the one of the deceased sometimes were also part of funerary rituals. In short, by paying attention to food and drink as burial goods I will put forth a more nuanced understanding of early Chinese burial practices and associated notions of the afterlife.